The impact of the Russian food import ban on the European dairy and meat markets will be assessed in detail at an EU management committee meeting in Brussels today (Thursday).
An Aid to Private Storage Scheme (APS) for butter, powder and cheese is likely to be announced in the coming days.
The impact of the ban is also likely to feature at Saturday’s extraordinary European Summit of EU leaders. Badly affected countries such as Poland, the Netherlands and Finland are pushing for a more effective response to the fallout from sanctions.
Dairy processing giant Arla Foods last week cited the impact of the Russian ban when cutting its European milk price by 1.5 c/kg.
Here in Ireland, both the IFA and ICOS have called for urgent measures from the EU Commission.
IFA National Dairy Committee chairman Sean O’Leary said: “While Ireland exports very little dairy products to Russia, a third of all EU dairy exports go there. The knock-on effect of the import ban is starting to make itself felt on global markets, and it is affecting sentiment and prices alike, both within and outside the EU.”
Bertie O’Leary, president ofthe Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS), said: “Given the political stance taken by the EU in pushing for a trade deal with Ukraine and in its subsequent backing of sanctions against Russia, EU farmers and food processors should not now be expected to bear the brunt of the cost of the Russian ban on food imports.”
ICOS is seeking a number of measures, including:
The opening of maximum private storage aid. A change to fat correction factors on delivered milk to reduce superlevy costs.Superlevy fines taken by the Commission for the 2013/14 quota year to be immediately ring-fenced and used specifically to help the current dairy situation.
The impact of the Russian food import ban on the European dairy and meat markets will be assessed in detail at an EU management committee meeting in Brussels today (Thursday).
An Aid to Private Storage Scheme (APS) for butter, powder and cheese is likely to be announced in the coming days.
The impact of the ban is also likely to feature at Saturday’s extraordinary European Summit of EU leaders. Badly affected countries such as Poland, the Netherlands and Finland are pushing for a more effective response to the fallout from sanctions.
Dairy processing giant Arla Foods last week cited the impact of the Russian ban when cutting its European milk price by 1.5 c/kg.
Here in Ireland, both the IFA and ICOS have called for urgent measures from the EU Commission.
IFA National Dairy Committee chairman Sean O’Leary said: “While Ireland exports very little dairy products to Russia, a third of all EU dairy exports go there. The knock-on effect of the import ban is starting to make itself felt on global markets, and it is affecting sentiment and prices alike, both within and outside the EU.”
Bertie O’Leary, president ofthe Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS), said: “Given the political stance taken by the EU in pushing for a trade deal with Ukraine and in its subsequent backing of sanctions against Russia, EU farmers and food processors should not now be expected to bear the brunt of the cost of the Russian ban on food imports.”
ICOS is seeking a number of measures, including:
The opening of maximum private storage aid. A change to fat correction factors on delivered milk to reduce superlevy costs.Superlevy fines taken by the Commission for the 2013/14 quota year to be immediately ring-fenced and used specifically to help the current dairy situation. 
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